Mom seeks answers in crash

William Kaempffer, New Haven Register

Published 12:00 am, Sunday, June 19, 2011

NEW HAVEN -- The family of a Hopkins School graduate is offering a $20,000 reward for information about a 2008 automobile crash near the private school campus that seriously injured the student athlete and award- winning pianist.

On the surface, the crash might seem to be a clear-cut, one-car accident where a blown tire on a Volvo sedan caused the young woman, Connie Chen, now 21 and in college, to lose control of her car, which struck a utility pole and rolled over.

But in a lawsuit against the prestigious prep school -- and in pointed letters to politicians, lawyers, administrators, police and members of the Hopkins community -- Chen's mother claims it was a criminal act. Someone intentionally cut her daughter's tire while it was parked on campus, she said.

Coincidentally, she added, the crash happened just hours after the mother said she met with a top school official to complain about alleged longstanding mistreatment of her daughter by her varsity swim coach.

"I am not the one to connect the dots between the incidents," said Laura Piao, Chen's mother, in a telephone interview. She said that should be determined by school and law enforcement, although she said New Haven police have not been responsive and performed an "incompetent" investigation even after her investigator provided the accident reconstruction report showing the tire was intentionally cut.

The escalating crusade by Piao has become decidedly public. In March, Piao wrote a detailed open letter to the Hopkins School, its board of trustees, faculty, staff, students and parents laying bare her concerns. The family created a 3-minute YouTube video and an online petition to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy calling for the criminal investigation to be reopened. She has sent letters to Malloy and former Gov. M. Jodi Rell, to the state attorney general, state senators and representatives, among others, and filed complaints with both the New Haven and state police over the handling of the investigation of the crash. She also filed a complaint with the director of the Commission on Independent Schools, which accredits private schools as part of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

"My ongoing efforts are not a campaign by an angry or embittered mother looking for revenge," she stated in the open letter. "Rather, it is the voice of one loving mother speaking out for the truth."

In an emailed statement, Barbara M. Riley, the head of school at Hopkins, said: "Since the Fall of 2010, Hopkins School has been a party to a lawsuit commenced against it by a former student and her father. We strongly refute all allegations."

Documents included in court filings provide a bit more insight. In one letter contained in the court file, Piao responds to a Hopkins lawyer's accusations that she made "baseless fabrications" and suggests her motivation for writing the Commission on Independent Schools was "obviously to harm the school's reputation." In another letter, referred to in the court file, an attorney for the school suggests Piao's campaign was driven by disappointment "that your daughter was not admitted into the particular prestigious school of your choosing."

Piao responded in a letter that the suggestion was "offensive and a discredit to my character." Her complaints about her daughter's treatment, she said, began six months before college admissions results were released.

Rumors also swirled that Piao made a $500 donation to the swim team before the crash, intended to sway favor to her daughter to be named captain. Piao says the donation was to fix damaged equipment and that it was not uncommon for parents to give money to support the program.

The seven-page lawsuit reads like a typical personal injury suit. Chen, of Orange, drove to Hopkins and parked in her assigned spot. After school, she started driving home and was a half-mile from campus when she suffered a "catastrophic failure" of her right front tire, causing her to lose control of the car, strike a pole and roll over.

An accident reconstructionist hired by the family concluded that the failure was caused by a laceration on the tire's sidewall made by a knife or similarly sharp object. The lawsuit contends that Hopkins was negligent because it knew or should have reasonably foreseen that there was a risk that a student's vehicle could be tampered with and failed to provide adequate staffing, security or video surveillance.

According to the suit, Chen suffered traumatic brain injury, injuries to her back and shoulder, post traumatic stress disorder and depression.

Letters contained in the court file allege a divisive subplot with Piao seeking an investigation into the longtime Hopkins head swim coach and his "unique recruiting methods" to gain members of the paid private swim club that is based on the Hopkins campus.

She claims in letters contained in the court file that coach Charles Elrick and Lisa Earley, manager of the private Hopkins Mariner Swim Team, pressured Chen into leaving her private team in Amity and join his and then subjected her to "segregation," "humiliation" and "unbearable harassment." Earley has a daughter who was the same age and grade as Chen who also was on the varsity swim team and competed in the same swimming style. Piao suggested in the letters that her daughter's mistreatment intensified when Elrick and Earley learned that Chen and Early's daughter had applied to the same college to swim.

Repeated attempts to reach Elrick and Earley for comment were unsuccessful.

Piao said in a telephone interview that after several months, on the same day as the crash, she scheduled an appointment with the Hopkins athletic director to complain about Elrick.

Later, Piao stated, Hopkins inexplicably delayed for two months sending Chen's official transcript to a college swim coach and sent it only after the recruiting period was over.

"Coincidentally, Connie's transcript was sent out right after the swimming rival received her confirmation letter" for college, Piao said in the court filings.

Chen attends Emory University in Atlanta where she is doing well, her mother said.

But injuries changed her life, both physically and neurologically, she said. The $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest was offered in hopes of re-energizing the investigation, she stated. "Somebody harmed the girl. I need to find the (person). This is a crime and I need to know some information," she said in the interview.

One Hopkins parent familiar with Piao's efforts contacted the Register to "provide some context" and defend Elrick.

"He's one of those dedicated guys who gets up at the crack of dawn. He is beloved by his swimmers and highly respected by his colleagues," the person said. He did not want his name published.